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The Planck Collaboration will present the latest scientific results from ESA’s Planck satellite during a conference to be held from 1 to 5 December 2014 in Ferrara, Italy.

Launched in 2009, Planck was designed to map the sky in nine frequencies from microwave to sub-millimetre wavelengths, to study the anisotropies of the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) radiation in unprecedented detail. These anisotropies can be detected in the temperature of the CMB as well as in its polarisation.

Among the various topics that will be discussed during the conference, scientists from the Planck Collaboration will present the first results based on Planck’s all-sky observation of the CMB polarisation and of the polarised foreground emission from the Milky Way. In addition, the latest results based on the analysis of the CMB intensity will also be presented, along with the study of astrophysical foregrounds. Results from other experiments will be presented and discussed as well.

Scientific papers describing these results will be submitted to journals a few weeks after the conference, along with the public release of the Planck data products on which the results are based. Thus, the conference “Planck 2014 - The microwave sky in temperature and polarization” is the first occasion to preview the latest Planck data products and scientific results, and to discuss their scientific impact.

About Planck

Planck was launched in May 2009 and surveyed the sky continuously until October 2013. The High Frequency Instrument, which includes six frequency bands in the range 100–857 GHz, completed its survey in January 2012; the Low Frequency Instrument, which includes three frequency bands in the range 30–70 GHz, continued to make science observations until 3 October 2013, before being switched off on 19 October 2013. Seven of Planck’s nine frequency channels were equipped with polarisation-sensitive detectors.

The Planck Scientific Collaboration consists of all the scientists who have contributed to the development of the mission, and who participate in the scientific exploitation of the data during the proprietary period. These scientists are members of one or more of four consortia: the LFI Consortium, the HFI Consortium, the DK-Planck Consortium, and ESA’s Planck Science Office. The two European-led Planck Data Processing Centres are located in Paris, France and Trieste, Italy.

The LFI consortium is led by N. Mandolesi, Agenzia Spaziale Italiana ASI, Italy (deputy PI: M. Bersanelli, Università degli Studi di Milano, Italy), and was responsible for the development and operation of LFI. The HFI consortium is led by J.L. Puget, Institut d’Astrophysique Spatiale in Orsay, France (deputy PI: F. Bouchet, Institut d’Astrophysique de Paris, France), and was responsible for the development and operation of HFI.